23rd May 2016

Guardian of Safe Working

Whilst contract discussions have been underway, even whilst awaiting the new ballot, the JDC has asked Local Negotiating Committees (LNCs) to support the process of recruiting a Guardian of Safe Working.

http://www.nhsemployers.org/~/media/Employers/Documents/Need%20to%20know/Jnr%20Dr%20guardian%20of%20safe%20working%2030%2003.pdf

This role is an important one. Whilst any 'senior person' can apply, it is expected it will be a doctor & someone with sufficient gravitas to gain the confidence of junior & senior doctors and management.

They will be responsible for collating quarterly reports on rota gaps & staffing needs, identifying where excessive hours are being worked and setting up the necessary changes to bring them back to contracted hours. Without breaking the locum cap or spending any extra money.

Fines are levied if a Trust does not resolve the issues and that money gets ploughed back into education & training (so it doesn't leave the Trust).

The Guardian is directly line managed by the Medical Director, but is required to be independent of the management structure. The advert is currently out, carrying an allocated time in the job plan of one session (4 hours a week).

Quality & Safety Half Day 

Thursday afternoon was Educational Half Day, and in T&O it was a really good one.

Our Trauma Fellow Tim Iliopoulos presented some really good work demonstrating benefits of early transfusion (on day of admission) to our NOF patients to improve their outcomes.

 Our ST3 Natasha Morrisey presented an audit that showed patients over 65 years did much better than you'd think with an ilizarov frame & Foundation Drs Rosie & Sophie did an excellent job of clearly presenting the M&Ms.

🎉Congratulations Corner🍾👏🏻

Absolutely delighted to hear the news this week that our Senior Registrar Kieran Gallagher has passed the Exit Exam and can add FRCS (Tr&Orth) to his collection of letters

Kieran has let us viva him to distraction, which I know has startled some of our junior colleagues but that really is how the Exit Exams go: as soon as they ask candidates to sew the answers on a lace pillow in fluffy pink wool with flowers & kittens then we'll take it down a notch. But until then... 

16th May 2016

Final sign offs

Much in demand this week as it's that time of year again: eportfolio provisional sign-offs. It's also the time to really think about what you want to do next. 

With so much uncertainty surrounding the contracts, it is no surprise that many want to wait and see what happens before committing further to a career in medicine. 

More promising is the news that the 5 day 'pause' for renewed negotiations between NHS England & the JDC has been extended into a second week.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/13/junior-doctors-and-goverment-extend-contract-talks

Good News

This week AJ Jibawi who has been a locum with us, accepted the substantive appointment as Consultant Vascular Surgeon 

AJ is a regular fixture round the Surgical LFG table and it is good to see his commitment rewarded with this post.

He joins Barun Majumdar & Magdy Moawad (seen above) as the more recent appointments in Vascular Surgery, all of who are fully engaged with training here @ASPHFT.

More Good News

Congratulations also this week to Young-Seok Cho, current a Core Trainee in T&O, who has heard this week that not only was he successful at obtaining a T&O Registrar training number but also securing his first choice Deanery - @HEE_KSS. 

Hopefully that means we'll see him back again in the future, on the registrar rota.

Forthcoming Attractions

Might seem a way off for BOA Congress is coming up fast upon us http://congress.boa.ac.uk/

This year it's in Belfast and you still have a couple of days left for the early bird discounts 

9th May 2016

SCReaM if you want to go faster...

This week I got to play the part ... of a Surgeon. I took part in some simulated operating theatre emergencies as part of the SCReaM Course.

Initially a project between @ASPHFT & @RoyalSurrey, Surrey Crisis Resource Management is an initiative to manage theatre emergencies in a safe, effective team-driven way. Led by anaesthetist Dr Rob Menzies, we got out head mikes on and heard about a ready-reference guide that from July will be available in every theatre.

These guides allow team members to have protocols for all the possible differential diagnoses of for example bradycardia, hypovolaemia, local anaesthetic toxcity and more, without having to keep all the details in your head (and maybe remember them wrong)

We had an awesome sim dummy to work with, who had pulses, lips that went blue, blinking eyes and everything

... all linked up to an iPad anaesthetic machine to give us all heart attacks as it went into VF.

This is a really good initiative: having been in theatre when challenges have occurred before knife got anywhere near skin, this is a staggeringly good way of ensuring there's no panic & no forgotten steps. If you have an opportunity to take part, do. 

Sam Simmonds Meeting

This Friday saw the annual Sam Simmonds Meeting, this year hosted by Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals @BSUH_NHS with Mr Ben Rogers at the helm @BenedictARogers. Each of the Hospital groups that make up the rotation take turns to host what has become a pretty big meeting of around 250 surgeons. We've long outgrown post-grad lecture theatres and this year we met at the Ashdown Park Hotel @AshdownPark in the sunshine 

This event is the only occasion where T&O surgeons, both trainees and consultants, from the South West Thames Orthopaedic rotation can get together. The morning session is made up of Registrar presentations and our own Mr Sohail Yousaf presented his work on civilian traumatic amputations

The afternoon session is made up of invited speakers and this year we heard from the CEO of the British Orthopaedic Association @BritOrthopaedic on the progress of "Getting It Right First Time" (GIRFT). All Trusts are about to receive their second visit to see if they are performing as expected or if they are outliers from the mean. This is hugely important work in standardising care across England & Wales.

We also hold the Consultants' Meeting where we hear about the state of training which continues to be tinged with gloom. There is concern that there will be unfilled posts at CST & HST in August and all Trusts are hoping to attract a smaller & smaller pool of applicants for Trust grade positions.

Good to see women Consultants well represented. Feels like we might be knocking on the door of 10% of the Consultant body of E&W...

Hip Surgeons Ms Kate Gill @RoyalSurrey with Ms Sam Hook @westernsussex

Paediatric Orthopod & BOA Council member Ms Karen Daly @StGeorgesUni, Ms Natasha Morrisey HST @ASPHFT & Hand Surgeon Ms Becky Owens @FrimleyHealth

Hand Surgeon Ms Shamim Umarji @Shami_Umarji @StGeorgesUni coping well being photobombed by Mr Anthony Sakellariou @FrimleyHealth

Forthcoming Attractions

In this section I have previously highlighted courses coming up that may be useful for CPD. This week I want to draw your attention to e-learning.

The L-word ("leadership") has traditionally made my heart sink and my eyes roll but it is a mandatory part of training so I must suppress my cynicism. It is also usually the part of trainees' portfolios that's most likely to have tumbleweed rolling through it so any opportunity to fill that gap should be embraced.

Have a look at this e-learning programme: http://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/leadership-for-clinicians/

It may help you get started and even interested in the subject.